MIAMI BEACH, Florida – Dan Tapiero, founder of cryptocurrency-focused growth equity fund 50T Holdings, is betting that artificial intelligence and blockchain technology will converge in ways the market has not yet accounted for.
“Blockchain is the money of AI,” Tapiero said in an interview with CoinDesk. “If you imagine having thousands of these AI agents acting independently, they won’t be sending wires from JPMorgan. They’ll all be smart contracts built into blockchains.”
Tapiero said he expects about 20% of the next 50T fund (currently raising capital through early 2026) to be invested in companies operating at the intersection of AI and blockchain. While he acknowledged that those companies “don’t even exist yet” on a growth scale, he said he’s confident that “in the next five years, that will become a real category.”
Tapiero also shared a bullish but measured view on the trajectory of the cryptocurrency market. He said he has the same goal for bitcoin. from the beginning of 2023: $180,000. First, he expects the asset to consolidate around $100,000, a level he says has long served as a psychological anchor for bitcoin investors and whales.
“The markets are moving towards round numbers. It’s nonsense, but it’s real,” he said. “And in crypto, the target has been $100,000 for a long time. Once we hold that for a while, I think we’re headed to $180,000, maybe by summer of next year.”
Bitcoin has been trading in the $101,000 to $124,000 range for the past six months and is currently stuck around $103,000.
While some traders have grown impatient with bitcoin’s price stagnation, Tapiero cautioned against short-term thinking. “This is the toughest market I’ve ever tried to trade in,” he said, referring to his 25 years in traditional markets. “Trying to take a short-term view here is almost impossible.”
Undervalued companies in growth stage
Tapiero said his firm, which has $2 billion in assets under management and has invested in 24 companies, is seeing some of the best opportunities in its history. With many traditional investors remaining cautious after high-profile collapses like FTX and Celsius, there is minimal competition for growth-stage crypto companies generating between $50 million and $100 million in revenue.
“We are the only growth equity fund in the world that focuses exclusively on cryptocurrencies. We don’t do seed or risk. And right now, we are dictating the prices,” he said.
50T has had six exits this year, including the IPOs of Circle (CRCL), Gemini (GEMI) and eToro (ETOR) and Coinbase’s (COIN) acquisition of derivatives exchange Deribit. While valuations in the public markets are rising (some companies trade at 10 to 20 times revenue), private market prices remain subdued.
Overrated and underrated
Tapiero said he is skeptical of the tokenization narrative that has gained traction in recent months.
While he believes in the long-term potential of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), he said actual adoption has lagged behind expectations.
“There’s a lot of talk, but it’s still early,” he said, pointing to companies like Securitize and Figure as pioneers but noting that “the reality is that it hasn’t really happened.”
On the other hand, in his opinion, decentralized finance (DeFi) has already surpassed 2021 levels and remains a key area of interest despite usability challenges. Metaverse and blockchain gaming companies, on the other hand, remain “close to the bottom,” he said.
For now, Tapiero is focused on expanding investments in what he sees as the next layer of infrastructure for a digitalized economy, especially where blockchain meets autonomous AI agents.
“I don’t even know who those companies are yet,” he said. “But I’m sure this is where it’s going.”
